Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1887-10-13

place because ne IOunu IlIn ubeiui, HIS
knoSledge of navigation was great, and
he had sailed in almost every known
sea.
Against his protest, the Captain en-
gagged a cabin-boy for this voyage. lie
was the orphan grandson of one of the
legless veterans of the Royal Navy,
and he had been about Greenwich Hos
pital so much, and heard SO many stir
ring stories of the sea from the disab' ed
aud superannuated tars laid up there,
that he was longing to make voyage.
Captain Converse liked his bright looks
and manly talk, and took him on this
voyage. The boys name was Rodney
Barre.
1t is not nece ssary to the proper un-
derstanding of the story that all that
befell the ship and her crew on the
voyage down the Atlantic and round
the Horn should be told. 1t was
then voyage of many weeks, as it is
now. under sail. The Captain was
mild aud easy as ever; the mate was
quite as brutal as he had ever been
known to be, and the quick, bright
cabin-boy kept his eyes and ears open
and learned something new every day
about sea-faring.
1t was when the Cynthia had got well
up in the low latitudes of the Pacific
that great disaster happened.
For q week the Captain had been
confined to his berth in his cabin by
low, listless ship-fever. In that week
he was unable to visit the deck, and
Rodney was busy attending to him.
The ships chest had few simple
drugs and remedies, of which every
shipmaster was supposed to know the
use, and Captain Converse attempted
to prescribe for himself. He did not
make much of a success OF it.
/ think that if he had known half
the shocking treatment that the mate
was dealing out to the sailors he would
have got upon deck some way and
stopped it; but he did not, aud Mr..
Kinds brutality went on till the catas-
trophe came. -..,,s,,,,
IT came ON u pJnI, queU gnt, wnen
the ship was hardly moving through
the water. The Captain was slightly
delirious, and Rodney was awake al
most the whole night, wetting his
head, and G wing him powders and
drink. About midnight the abin-boy
heard strange noises from the deck.
There we're shouts and cries, pistol
shot; and later, the sound OF oars In
the water, rounding the ships stern.
Rodney looked out through the bulls
eve window, but the night was dark,
and nothing was in sight.
He thought he would go cautiously
on deck and reconnoiter. He tried
the cabin door, and .und it locked.
When the long hours Of the might
had passed, the Captain woke from hi
slumber and was conscious. The boy
told him what ho had heard.
Something dreadful has happened,
the Captain groaned. like q hatche
from the locker, break the lock of th
door, and find out what's wrong.
Something very dreadful had hap
pened, and Rodney was not long il
finding it out. The mate was proppe'
up against the foremast, with tw
knives driven through his breast and
bullet-hole in his head. A white pape
was pinned to his coat, scrawled owe
with rude characters, which the DO
deciphered as follows:
"Sir Capt. We likes you, and W
would not hurt you nor the boy; but TIL
here brute had to be put where I'll
|, devil will Civ him the ropes end. W
{ start him on his vige. and we goes OF
ways. Fair we'll, and may you mai
} port safe.
! All around this queer letter wei
! signed the names of the seamel
q "round-robin" style, so that, in cal
! they we're caught, the names OF I'll
ringleaders would not be known.
Rodney looked from the horrib
spectacle of the deck and saw that the
e was a dead calm. The sea was III
4 glass. The sails of the Cynthia I'd
q fiapped from the yards. Not anoth
v sail was in sight. The mutinous al
q runaway crew had taken the long-bo
;, and the jolly-boat and were now
p beyond call or sight.
!. Rodney took the paper and we
= back to the cabin. The Captain, we
70 and ck as he was, helpless aud
nerved, heard the boys account o
70 fell back groaning on his pillow.
, God be merciful to us!" he erie
is 1T is a judgment upon us for
standing between Kinds and my pc
NJ sailors. knew my duty, and 1 did
not. Boy, we shall starve; we sh
NJ drift helpless till the storms carry
TO the bottom. Poor innocent that y
an are, have involved you in my puni
n ment."
or Rodney Barre was but twelve yet
IL old: but "the child is the father OF
Of man." and the hero-spirit OF his la
va wears began to shine out in him.
talked cheerfully and soothingly to-
sick Captain, and told him what
,oa Thought he could do. There would
cd no danger, he said. while the calm c
ie- tinued; and, before q gale came up,
he hoped to signal some vessel and get
he lief. =,
at aHow, I'd like to knowP' fretfr
interrupted the Captain.
In "Pll run mp the Union-Jack. un
js. down, to the main top.mast.
ya- We'll. But there's no water
7in food in the cabin lockers, here.
mt to one some of those sailors locked
,ou the bulkhead door and threw the
,cb overheard. How will You get to the h'
b scuit, salt-iunk, and water casks 2
iif- Il can find an axe" said Rodr
on "Ill break in"
rae Good" said the Captain, drow'
tho ~Take command of the ship, la'
the can't stay awake. Kinds said L mus
to bring you, but think the hand OF
the was in it..
ory While the Captain slept Rodney
he stirred himself. Ho found the b
ore. head door wide open, and brought d
oat. into the cabin provisions and W
of enough for weeks. The disagree
pe's lob of pulling out the knives and